Scorns of Time
by jackdagger
Summary: Lulu finds out Seymour is alive and is angrily determined to find him. Eventual LuluSeymour pairing. Ch. 3 up- explains Seymour's past.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: This is my first serious fanfic... I doubt I'll ever finish it, but oh well. This is based after the events of Final Fantasy 10. 10-2 is evil, so we'll pretend it never happened. All characters, places, etc. copyright of Square Enix. Enjoy.  
Edit: Attempted to fix the formatting...

  
  
  
"Most benevolent Lord Jyscal, and most wise Lord Seymour..."  
  
Tromell's words echoed in Lulu's head as she stood overlooking the Farplane. She couldn't help but remember that day... the day Spira had changed forever. Upon entering Sin, they had encountered Maester Seymour Guado, the young leader of Yevon who had descended into madness, trying to become Sin. They had defeated him, and Yuna danced. She danced as he fell to the ground, clutching at his wounds. "So... it is you after all who will send me. But even after I am gone, Spira's sorrow will prevail." He sounded so calm, yet so sad, as if he truly wanted to end the suffering of the planet. He would never get a chance to, because Yuna continued to dance. His existence faded away into pyreflies, swirls of blue and green, floating into Sin's gray sky.  
  
No one spoke of it, not even Yuna. A burden seemed to have been lifted off her shoulders, yet she still spoke softly and forlorn, as if she knew she was still going to loose something important to her.  
  
Before confronting Yevon himself, the group journeyed together one last time. They returned to the Calm Lands and stood there, overlooking the green plains. They returned to Zanarkand and sat around a campfire again, saying nothing. They traveled back to Guadosalam, and walked slowly to the Farplane, staring at the pink and gold waterfalls... the field of flowers, the never-ending sunset stretching out into oblivion. It was there they encountered Tromell, who was staring at an illusion of an elderly man with a blue beard and wrinkled skin. It was Lord Jyscal, the previous leader of the Guado and Seymour's father. Tromell addressed him formally, and continued to talk to him as if he didn't even notice of the group's presence. He talked about many things, including of Jyscal's son. But Maester Seymour never appeared beside his father. He was sent. By all rights he should have appeared as a projection of pyreflies. But he never did.  
  
Lulu thought she was the only one who caught it. She didn't mention it to anyone, figuring it was a happenstance. But today, less than a year later, the thought crossed her mind again. She had to know the truth. She spun around, her long braids swinging and falling around her shoulders. No one else was on the Farplane. Sighing, she focused her eyes on the never-ending horizon and thought of him.  
  
The pyreflies made no response. Bringing one hand up to rest on her shoulder, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She remembered Luca, the Mi'hen Highroad, and Mushroom Rock. She saw him bow gracefully to her summoner, benign smile on his face. She remembered Macalania, Mount Gagazet... and Bevelle. She saw him reach out with a long-nailed hand, resting it on Yuna's shoulder as he leaned in to kiss her. She remembered Sin and Guadosalam. She saw his mysterious violet eyes, the unnatural shade of his hair, the veins protruding from his forehead, the ebony dragons snaking around his shoulders. She opened her eyes and gasped.  
  
She could see pyreflies dancing in the slight breeze, the crescent shaped waterfall splashing into the green and pink abyss. Yet there was no illusion, no figure, no ghost of him. It could only mean one thing. He was still somewhere in Spira. 


	2. Repentance

Seymour Guado sat reclined against one of the decaying walls of the Baaj Temple, his eyes half closed. Every day was the same. Each day was agony. Over a year he had stayed in his destroyed childhood home, every day he could do nothing but wait, wait for the death that did not come. He had attempted to take his own life, yet he could not die. But then why had the sending not worked?  
  
Sin had been defeated. He knew of it. He had heard it from the shadows, as he had moved from place to place until he finally reached the temple. It was funny how things turned out... how your life could suddenly change. How you could go from being one of the most well known persons in Spira to being a spectre without a name. It was his own fault, and there was nothing he could do to make amends. He could not change the past, nor could he clear his name. He had sinned terribly. He was obsessed with death, taking lives one by one as if it was a game. And yet now, in an ironic turn of fate, he was the one who longed for death, a death that had slipped through his fingers.  
  
No one knew that he was still on Spira. Everyone knew Lady Yuna had performed a sending, and he had disappeared into the pyreflies. Due to his new hated reputation, no one had bothered to pray on the Farplane to his image. He was alone, and it was driving him mad. He longed to talk to someone, but there was no one left. Even the spirit of his mother was sent. Sometimes he would travel down to the Chamber of the Fayth, kneel and pray to her, wishing for her to forgive him. For even she had regarded him as the enemy, joining forces with the Summoner and her guardians.  
  
Thinking about this all was a routine he painstakingly went through every day. What else was there to do... but think? He closed his eyes, wishing that the darkness would envelop him, returning him to nothingness. In his concentration, he barely noticed a the faint sound of footsteps that weaved their way into his eardrum.  
  
He paused for a moment, then opened his eyes. When his vision came to, he saw a cluster of belts buckled together for a skirt, leading up to a gray dress and corset. Her pale, bare shoulders were hunched forward, a sneer glaring at him through beautifully molded features. He recognized the face. But why was she here...?  
  
"What are you doing here?" he asked softly, closing his eyes again. There was no point in opening them. Yevon must have found him. He would be captured, and probably killed. That is, if he was capable of death.  
  
"What am I doing here?" she asked coldly. "You're supposed to be on the Farplane."  
  
"There are some things no one can explain, milady." He tilted his head back, his eyes still closed. "Tell your superiors to kill me quickly. Try to, at least."  
  
"What are you talking about? I came alone," she snapped.  
  
Seymour opened his eyes. "Then why are you here?" he asked. "How did you find me?"  
  
"Do you even know who I am?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"One of Lady Yuna's guardians. The black mage. Such powerful magic from such a delicate individual."  
  
She ignored his comment and instead answered his question, her snide undertone returning. "You didn't appear on the Farplane. I knew you were somewhere in Spira. I figured you would be here. I came alone, in case I was wrong. But right now, I want to know WHY you're here. If you're planning on trying to destroy-"  
  
"Please, I do not wish anyone harm. I am a broken man. There is nothing I can do for myself, there is nothing I wish to do to anyone else."  
  
He thought he saw her grimace slightly soften. He wasn't sure if she believed him or not. Even if she did, there was no way he could gain her trust, or make her no longer hate him. It was too late for that. It was too late for anyone to cease hatred of him.  
  
But the black mage did something unexpected. She sank down, sitting across from him, still keeping quite a distance. "So..." she began, tilting her head condescendingly. "Tell me your story." 


	3. A Lost Past

((AN: I finally updated. Whew. Oh, and thanks for the reviews, everyone. I'm happy to know that I'm not the only person who supports a Seymour/Lulu pairing. In this chapter, I'm taken everything about Seymour's past from the game, and made up a detailed backstory for him. Poor guy needed one, anyway.))  
  
When Lulu saw him again, she was flooded with all the negative emotions he'd bestowed upon her and her friends a year ago. Anger, frustration, hatred... she could never forgive Seymour for what he had done to Yuna, or anyone else for that matter.  
  
However, she was surprised at how disreputable he looked. He was slouched against one of the crumbling stone walls, his head shamefully pointed downwards. The robe he had once donned was lying in a tattered heap in the corner of the room, perhaps for a makeshift bed. His long, cerulean hair lay somewhat limply around his shoulders, and his eyes had lost their glow, deeming them gray and emotionless. When he finally spoke his voice seemed pained, and lacked any emotion except sorrow. He no longer looked formidable in any way, and Lulu was not afraid to be alone with him. He didn't seem like he would want to hurt her, and if he did, Lulu knew she was powerful enough to take him out. Despite all that, she had to admit that she was intrigued by his predicament, and how he came to be that way. She had to find out exactly what had happened. After all, the teachings of Yevon and Spira could be at stake. She eyed him through narrowed umber eyes, choosing her words carefully. She asked him to tell her, and he did.  
  
When he was born, his mother was a human, and his father was the leader of the Guado Race. They were the first married couple of mixed races... and of course, it was frowned upon. When they gave birth to a child, it was called a mixed breed, a halfblood, a mutant. Lord Jyscal tried to protect his wife and son, but the hatred of the people was too great. At only six months old, a servant in the palace tried to kill the young Seymour, by smothering him with a pillow in his nursery. After this incident, Jyscal knew that Seymour and his mother could not stay in Guadosalam.  
  
He had sent them to the only safe place he could think of: Baaj Temple. It was a remote place, surrounded by water, and no travelers ever ventured there, especially none of the Guado.  
  
Seymour and his mother had hid their identities as they traveled across Spira. No one was to know that Seymour was part Guado, which made the young child feel himself to be a sin, a worthless creature that no one would ever respect, or love.  
  
Seven long years he'd lived with his mother alone, never speaking to anyone else, nor not even knowing what was going on with the rest of the world. His mother tried to feign happiness, telling young Seymour that all they needed was each other, but he never believed her. He could always see the glimmer of defeat behind her deep blue eyes, the sorrow reflected in her voice. Gradually she seemed to have had given up. Her skin was pallid, and her eyes were dull. She was weak, and could not pick up her son in her arms like she used to. She coughed and slept a lot. Seymour knew she was dying.  
  
It seemed as if she would stay the remainder of her life in the Baaj temple, but one day, she told her son they were leaving. They would travel to the fabled Zanarkand Dome, where she would be able to be with her son forever. Seymour was of course confused, but overjoyed with the fact that his mother would not be leaving him. And so, they made their journey.  
  
Seymour's mother did not speak much to him, until they reached the dome. Seymour finally gained the courage to ask his mother where they were going, and she finally revealed to him her plans.  
  
They would meet Lady Yunalesca, the mother of all summoners, and she would transform Seymour's mother into a monster, an aeon. Her body would sleep forever in the Baaj Temple, but her soul, her aura, would fight alongside Seymour. She wanted him to become a Summoner. Then one day, when he became strong enough, he could travel once again to Zanarkand, using his mother as his final aeon. They would defeat Sin together and die in the process, but would gain respect all over Spira during the Calm.  
  
"No, Mother, no! I don't want you to become a fayth!" he protested, tears stinging his wide childish eyes.  
  
She had looked sternly to him, her voice even and apathetic. "There is no other way. Use me and defeat Sin. Only then will the people accept you."  
  
"I don't care about them! I need you, Mother! No one else!"  
  
She heaved a heavy, painful sigh, her next words soft and anguished. "I don't... have much time left..."  
  
Seymour had paused, the tears streaming down his face. It was true... she was dying. If this was the only way she wouldn't completely leave him... perhaps... perhaps it was for the best.  
  
He didn't remember much after that... his vision was clouded by tears and his mind was distracted by everything new and confusing that was going on. He watched his mother, the one person who he had ever cared about, vanish before his very eyes, pyreflies dancing around the empty space where she once stood.  
  
"She is better off this way," Lady Yunalesca had told him. "Existence is suffering... and she has found her Eternal Calm. Someday you will join her, and you will give the people of Spira the one thing that they need... hope."  
  
Somehow he ended up back in Baaj Temple, frightened and alone. His mother had said her spirit would return to Baaj, but there was no sight of her. All Seymour could do was weep for his mother, for himself, for everything that had disappeared before his eyes. And all he could think about was his mother's words, moments before her life had been taken from her... "There is no other way. Use me and defeat Sin. Only then will the people accept you."  
  
Accept him... as long as he had lived he had never dreamed of anything such as this. He knew he was hated as a child, which was why he had to leave his home, and the father he hardly knew. He yearned for acceptance, but at the same time, his mother's words, although comforting, lingered in his ears like a parasite. "There is no other way. Use me and defeat Sin. Only then will the people accept you." The realization of what she was saying shot through him, making him cry out. She wanted him to die. She wanted her son to die. For how else could he defeat Sin? If he became a summoner, he would summon the Final Aeon and be destroyed by it. The acceptance he had wished for crumbled away to reveal only impending death and destruction.  
  
Death. Death was all he could think about, all he could comprehend. He began to analyze what it meant to live and to die, and anger grew inside him. In order to be loved and respected, he had to die. And his own mother wished this, more than anyone else. Death. What was death? It was the only thing on his mind. If his own mother wanted him to die, death would have to be... a good thing, right? Over the years he thought, thought about what was to become of him, and the rest of Spira. And, naturally, he only yearned for one thing to them both...  
  
Death.  
  
((AN: And there you have it... how I think that Seymour's obsession with death came about. Makes sense, doesn't it? Next chapter will explain how he became a Maester and reveal his true intentions throughout FFX.)) 


End file.
